Bob,
The colour is SM 314, very close to your Humbrol 121 but a bit darker.
One of our members brought a headlight off a monkey face blitz which reputedly is a middle east veteran. When pulled apart it had what seems to be a very original section of whatever the desert colour was (unaffected by light) Light Stone?
I really do think we are are all playing with ourselves a bit over this subject as there must have been several manufacturers using slightly different materials. It was all eye matched (no spectrometers or computer matching in those days). Some cans were stirred well others not at all. Some vehicles had 4 coats others a minimum coating. Some were washed down with water, others with soap and still others with kerosine or petrol to get rid of oil stains, instantly changing the colour forever.
All different brands and types of thinners were used.
There is nobody to collect the bet but I would put my life's savings on the possibility that if a brand new Blitz from the Ford factory and another from the GM plant were parked together in the sunlight, blind Freddy could see the supposedly identical standard colour was a shade or two different!
There is a huge difference between what somebody writes down on an instruction and what comes out the factory door with neither the writer of the directive nor the paint manufacturer having any control over the circumstances of the application in the field.
To put it quite boldly NOBODY can say that this colour or that colour is wrong unless they by some miracle had a perfect colour correct photo of at least half a dozen brand new vehicles, from different manufacturers taken in 1942. Such photo quality did not exist and as I said above, if it did I am sure he would still have to average the colour.
A very famous Australian pilot, Guido Zuccoli, had an "expert" approach him on the first airshow outing of his beautifully restored Hawker Sea Fury fighter plane. The expert asked Guido why he painted the plane that colour when the "correct" colour was several shades lighter. Guido just turned to him and said quietly, "I am sorry it is he best I could do. What colour is your Sea Fury?"
If it feels good do it and ignore the comments from the peanut gallery.
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